Damn Regret
by HeirOfStars
Summary: Sasuke/Sakura. Naruto/Hinata. SasuSaku. NaruHina. Gory. Drama. One-shot. I decided this as more of a Sakura-centric story. This is my thought of what the ending of Naruto would be. Tragic, but just a thought. Sakura is left to decide that she should only be able to revive either Naruto or Sasuke with the Reanimation Jutsu. Who would then be revived? Dramatic? Yes.


**A/N: Greetings! This was done just for relieving the fact that I have been thinking of this for the past few days. It is my version or my thought of how Naruto would end. Well, it's my thought anyway so I WISH AND HOPE Naruto wouldn't end as tragic as I have thought. Yes, it's tragic but y'know how people with sad thoughts have.  
Hope you enjoy this piece of fanfiction. And yes, Naruto's Lucky Bet will be updated soon so watch out for the next chapter :)**

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She shot her eyes up to the heavens, screaming out loud for anyone to hear her pain. The blanket of blue was now replaced with a burning shade of red, with smoke hovering up towards the sky. Her heart was thumping, indicating that she was the only one alive. And she hated it.

It was all up to her now.

_And she hated it_. She hated it so _badly_.

The flames around her were about to engulf her skin, but she didn't show any emotion when she felt the piercing sharp pains for having fire caught onto her clothes and skin. She didn't know what to do. She just stared at the two lifeless bodies that had their faces distorted with cuts and bruises. If it wasn't for their familiar choice of clothes, Sakura wouldn't have recognized them. Naruto's built had burns all over him and the fingers that were supposed to be relaxed when dead were strained. Sakura could see the whole anatomy of Naruto's body, having to been sliced open. Compared to Naruto, Sasuke looked fine. Then Sakura saw his legs. They aren't legs anymore. They are –they are ground up, split open, wedged broken into the rocks, his insides on the outside, and it looks like meat, he looks like _meat_, but his mouth isn't open. Sasuke isn't screaming. All of this result was just by Naruto's last blow of rasengan alone.

"Naruto…" Sakura cried, "_Sasuke-kun_…"

She hated that she was alone in this situation.

She wanted somebody, anyone, to give her advice right at this moment.

Because all she knows was that both of them had killed each other then and there.

Her heart kept beating and it frustrated her that she was the _one_ alive. Not the loud-mouth blonde hero who had his body sliced into two or the good-looking genius that had his insides out of his body. It was _she_, Sakura Haruno, the useless and good for nothing girl who _was alive_.

_And she hated that_.

Among Team 7, she told herself that she was the one who _deserved to die_. She was supposed to be the one who was dead.

She didn't deserve to be alive.

She flung herself down to the ground, panting and trying to catch her breath. Gripping and clutching to her shirt and skin, trying to feel that this was just a nightmare. _But it never was_. Her heart thumping loudly and bile coming up to her throat felt so real. Sakura felt the stress getting up again. She wanted to scream again but no sound came out. Her whole body felt hollow and empty.

She felt so empty.

She knew she was the one who deserved to die.

She breathed heavily as she took a glance at both Naruto and Sasuke. She only had one choice right now and it had to be a good one.

Sakura stayed still, looking at her perfectly dainty hands that weren't bruised from the battles she had _never_ fought and she finally decided she had to make use of herself at that moment. Her determination flared up, shutting the hell around her because she didn't want to see anymore.

Recalling a dear friend's last words to her_, "__Sakura… Next time, save the people who are dear to you, not some old hag,__" _Sakura nodded to herself_._

Having seen Chiyo-sama perform her technique on Gaara, she had analyzed quickly that day of the life-giving technique the famed puppeteer had used. She had studied well of it with the help of her master, Tsunade, for future references but she didn't think she would have to use it much earlier than she thought.

Now, she was contemplating and her mind was stressing up the fact that she only had enough life energy to revive only one person.

_Would it be Sasuke or Naruto...?_

She felt tears sliding down her face when she was reminded again that she was all alone in this. With nobody to help her or consolidate that it would best to leave the dead alone, she finally brushed through the fire and walked her way towards them, burning her arms and legs.

She was faltering and tripping onto the hard gravel that scraped off her skin and the sharp rocks around her had cut through one of her burns. But Sakura bit her lip, trying not to feel tempted on wanting to turn back to what she had decided minutes earlier.

She can't give up now, they both _need_ her.

Coming close to Naruto, she placed in all her might to finally kneel down next to him. Seeing the face that had been bruised purple by Sasuke's strong punches, she was reminded that Naruto had taken too many burdens over his shoulders. The fight he had with Sasuke was to relieve all Sasuke's hatred, yet, the consequence was now right in front of her. The consequence here was that the both of them had died fighting each other. But, Naruto deserved happiness, not _this_. Death wasn't Naruto's answer. He needed to finish his life by achieving his _once _impossible dream of becoming Hokage.

"_Please_..." Sakura's voice cracked as she commenced to heal part of his torso and legs back together. She needed him to live. The village needed him to live. He needed to be Hokage. He had to be a living testimony.

A green glow came up to her hands and his skin was slowly joining up together. His organs that were sliced by Sasuke's sharp Katana had been connecting back again. She added a bit of her life energy each minute she healed Naruto's body. She was already feeling how weak and hollow she had gotten as each pulse of life energy left her.

"S-Sakura..." She heard a whisper escape from Naruto's lips.

It made her feel sore and sick. _What was she doing? _Why was she risking her life over someone she truly didn't romantically loved?

_Because Naruto deserved it_. He deserved a life full of happiness.

_Not some useless nobody like her._

"Sakura..." Sakura heard him speak in a stronger voice, "What... What are you doing...?"

Sakura knew the answer, of course, but saying it in front of her friend...? He'd make her stop and she won't know if she still had the determination to continue once Naruto did come through to stop her. Sakura simply continued to use the Reanimation jutsu.

She didn't even stare down at Naruto's eyes since at that moment; she was staring at Sasuke's blank eyes that were glaring up to the heavens. His eyes were wide open and sightless. His dark hair was in a mess and blood dripped down his eyes. He doesn't blink. He doesn't seem to see her. He might have gone blind at the last moment.

She bit her lip, trying not to cry or feel grief. Sasuke, too, deserved happiness and she felt so guilty and angry at herself that she was unable to help him achieve that. Her tears had dripped down her face onto Naruto's blood-damped jacket.

Sasuke deserved happiness after living a life full of hatred. His life had started off with an early growth of hatred and continuously, he suffered from that ever-growing parasite of hate. Sasuke, deserved to be happy and start a new beginning in life.

She knew all that but she continued to heal Naruto.

Because Sasuke deserved happiness, only that it could not be achieved in the world that bore that hatred. Sakura tried not to cry anymore at the fact that Sasuke was only able to achieve peace when dead.

"_I wish I could go to the same place as you..._" She uttered under her faint breath. She wanted him to be happy but that mission she gave herself failed and she couldn't stop herself from tearing up even though she desired to be a strong kunoichi even in her last moment. She even failed at that. She failed from being strong.

She felt a hand over hers, only realizing it was Naruto staring up at her with concerned ocean blue eyes. His lips parted to say a few words but Sakura wasn't able to hear his voice. She was already nearing death and had gone _deaf_, not being able to listen to Naruto's pleas of asking her to stop.

_And it was a good thing_.

Because if she did hear him, Sakura would've stopped.

Sakura's lips parted for the last time she was capable of speaking.

"_Please be happy_," Sakura placed all her effort in giving a smile before her vision faded into darkness and she took her last breath. Her eyes were closed shut and her face stayed into a smile but tears had streamed down her face. Her body frailly toppled down beside Naruto's and didn't move an inch at all. The emerald glow on her hands disappeared and her heart that had been beating against her ribs ceased.

When Naruto was shaking her and demanding for her to stop joking around, Sakura didn't feel it. She couldn't because her spirit had already been lifted.

Naruto had screamed and yelled as much as he could. He even had tears up in his eyes.

_What regret..._

He couldn't save the both of them. He wasn't able to stop Sasuke from his evil path and now, he couldn't stop Sakura from ending her life. How was Naruto going to deal with that?

He pulled his knees towards himself and kept hitting his knuckles down to the gravel, his fist already bleeding. He didn't deserve this, he shouldn't be even alive. People could call it a _fucking_ miracle but he didn't want this. Naruto didn't want Sakura to have died for him. He teared until there weren't any tears forming up in his eyes. Why did she have to risk herself just for him?

Sakura's last words kept repeating in Naruto's mind, like a mantra.

"_Please be happy_."

She said that he should be happy and Naruto wanted to cry a little more. Even at the very last moment, Sakura was still concerned about others' happiness.

_What kind of life she led..._

Naruto wiped the tears on Sakura's cold and pale face before he went over to Sasuke who had his eyes still wide open. He crawled with all of his might —even though his muscles were sore and pain still had enveloped all over his body. Naruto made his way towards his friend and kneeled next to him, placing a gentle hand over his horrifying wide red eyes, shutting them close.

"Teme," Naruto heard himself speak, "_Take care of Sakura up there for me._"

After he lifted his hand, Naruto felt rain already dripping down towards them. What started to be just a slight drizzle had turned into a storm of rain minutes later. It was as if the heavens were also grieving over his teammates' unfortunate deaths.

Droplets had landed on Sasuke's eyes then slid down his cheek, making it looked as if the bastard was _crying_.

"Sasuke," Naruto spoke as if Sasuke could hear him, "Be good to Sakura. Please make her happier than she was in this world."

Naruto had tears on his eyes sliding down his face, "Please make her happy. _Please_."

Naruto crammed his body down to the ground as he glimpsed at Sasuke's still face. His eyes were shut and rain continued to drip down from his eye contour and damping his sleeves. It was as if Sasuke was really crying and the blood that used to be on the edges of his eyes was washed away gradually.

"Answer her feelings, you bastard," Naruto attempted a smile that he couldn't bring himself to, "_You bastard_."

Hours later, Naruto felt a familiar presence of Kakashi walking up towards him. The split second of shock was clear in Kakashi's wide eyes but was later replaced with an enduring stare at his two pupils lying lifelessly on the hard rocks.

"Rest in peace, both of you," Kakashi eyed his two students before he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. The blonde was still weeping grievously. The both of them didn't move an inch even until the medical team had taken both Sasuke and Sakura's bodies away. The both of them stayed silent and didn't exchange a single word. Naruto grew afraid that if he was to say a word, he might break into another series of weeping again. Kakashi, on the other hand, simply explained the situation to Sai in the shadows who wanted to ask the blonde about his teammates.

Kakashi had a lot more responsibility over his shoulders as he tried to help the blonde boy recover from his friends' deaths.

Weeks later, their names had been engraved on stone and nobody dared mention their names in the village, especially in front of Naruto. Naruto would call them heroes even if they weren't the most perfect Shinobi out there. For weeks, the rest of Team 7 kept silent, and time grew difficult for Naruto to recover from the tragedy. It was a season of mourning, especially for the rest of the _Konoha 9_.

He would write the kanji of "happiness" multiple times when he was thinking alone. The words had been engraved in his mind ever since. The once loud and obnoxious Shinobi grew silent on his desk, not leaving his house to even see the world outside. Nobody dared to even come near him until Hinata approached Naruto.

Hinata had come over many times, helping him keep a smile on his face and he would be thankful for her efforts. Hinata would try to relieve him from the thoughts and stress of regret that he wasn't able to save anybody. She would help him forget about his fears and regrets and it would work.

_But the scar was still there, ripping the blonde apart._


End file.
